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potentially use a 2 gang socket extension to bring out the metal work form the backbox that you use to fill into and upto, then remove when all filler is dried. ML Accessories | 2G16EXT | 2G 16mm Galvanised Steel Skeleton Extension Box | Superlec Direct

Even the Telegraph is having a 'Hang on lads! Maybe we've gone too far?' moment: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/26/climate-change-real-right-needs-to-get-serious/

👍 Oh those are interesting. I haven't looked at lighting recently but I think that's the first sensible cost option I've seen for a CCT light that has the two light colours separately wired (so they can be controlled externally) rather than with integrated wifi/bluetooth control.

Yes, the extenders are the way forward. Shame they were not fitted pre-plaster, but at least it gives something to fill to.

If you have taped both wires together they will not bend .. knot bare cores together to keep join as thin and pliable as possible, once you get the new cable - as above push and pull at same time to ease it around the bend

Taped onto what? 90 bend is going to be tricky. Have a feeling others might have better suggestions but from what I know I would be wanting to use the old cable to pull through the new. (so total space occupied doesn't increase). Have one person pull the cable you are withdrawing and another feed in the cable you are installing. If the old cable is not stranded then will make things difficult. Easiest way is to cut an access in the plasterboard and then repair it. But if you've tiled or something then that's tricky. Another thought is can you abandon the existing cable route and make a new easier one. Finally, instead of feeding the multicore cable through, can you use the existing cable as a power feed for a smart controller installed locally. May be the last choice but guess you can hide a local espnow/shelly type device locally and connect to it over wifi/matter/zigbee/etc

My memory is vague but I think that's about the point I stopped liking my 3d graphics course at university. (some of the best teachers I had were on that course, very keen on props and jokes) * It's possible I learned about that maths after that course but it's long enough ago that Silicon Graphics were cool so I think it's a an accurate enough story 😛

Is there a water softener? Not sure I'd trust modern appliances (or the flexible piping/connections) to be robust (long term) against 5.5 bar. At least check the manual of them.

Apologies for the confusion. I am merely talking about the ground bearing slabs and it has nothing to do with pouring the screed layer. The slabs are basic. 150mm thick reinforced with A252 mesh and all prep work signed off by BC last Friday. Slabs for house will eventually be covered with 150mm PIR, VCL and then screed. Garage slab will be left as is and hoping that SCC will provide an adequate finish and negate having to use another finishing self levelling compound. So just to reiterate and avoid confusion, this is simply about placing the concrete for the ground bearing reinforced slabs.

We don't know much about it at all! The questions are not answered and I fear that the author doesn't know how much he doesn't know. It is out of concern that I keep trying to help. @flanagaj please explain what the construction of the floor is and what stage you are planning.

Your biggest challenge will be to get the concrete in the right place, as once it is poured you won't be moving it. If you can get the lorry near all the trenches, fantastic. If not you would do well with a concrete pump - either boom or line type. You will need minimum 3, preferably 4 people, plus the pump guy and concrete truck driver. Work out exactly what you are doing before anything turns up. How will the concrete lorries get in and out, traffic management etc. 6m is very wide to screed to. Can you get some pegs in the ground as levels? If there is a screed layer on top, the accuracy of the slab doesn't matter too much.

Defo not.

#1 rule in a wet area, is, “don’t make any feckin holes in a wet area!!”. I never use treated timber as fixing don't hold well, screws just go in one side and out the other due to the moisture, it dries and shrinks back, just horrible stuff to work with indoors basically. Currently doing 5 bathrooms / wet rooms in a clients new (timber frame) house and am using kiln dried regularised CLS only. If water gets to the wood then you have MUCH bigger problems. I only ever use plasterboard, and tank the living daylights out of it, and in over 25 years never had a single complaint or failure (same phone number for about 27 years btw, and I’ve worked for some proper moaning gits over the years who would DEFO have called me if their 1st floor wetroom was leaking into downstairs ). What do you need access for? I’ve never added this or ever needed to, just leak test the plumbing before boarding over, finish the job, and go to the pub. Isolators can be located elsewhere, like under the floorboards outside the room, or above in the attic etc, and most modern mixer showers are bombproof (if you don’t buy cheap crap blind from AliExpress et-al).

You know I've always trusted you 🙄.

Not planning on using dyes and will order the required 10 ton of sand in one go, so as to avoid possibility of slight colour shift.

Number one. Not just because the more grey colours seems to contrast with the block, and overpower the eyes (this will lead to your eyes looking more at the smaller surface area of the wall and be distracting, rather than the feeling the blockwork is the wall, and the mortar just s supporting role) But because there are green tones in the first that will age better. Over the years this will allow nature to grown alongside it in a complimentary way. If you intend an ultra modern gravel and slab surrounding design, then fair enough, but anything growing next to the grey would seem like a weed in a lawn and out of place. (just purely my opinion and feel free to ignore)

Are you letting it go silver? Have you viewed final "colour" with mortar as well? Image of our attached just as eg. Took us a while to choose whole "package"

You have a ‘digital mixer shower’, some are pumped to draw stored hot/cold water from gravity or ‘open pipe’ systems, others can accept high (balanced) pressure hot & cold inputs; both mix the temp digitally so are quite elegant solutions if getting into a pre-warmed shower is on the wish list. Caveat is, these wear out and need replacing more often than a basic thermostatic shower mixer that you control manually.

Spot on, and ditto on whether a small accurate spirit level was used to make sure they are horizontal. Without some care you can get them where even the adjustable lugs won't get them level. It is surprising how sensative the eye can be to whether 6 inch things are level/upright. (shhh pocster)

Lift the 5a one as much as possible, then same for the socket to see if you can hide this. Plasterer was shite, decorator equally as guilty. Just unbelievable that this incredibly low standard of work could have escaped the 80’s and still be so prevalent today in 2026. I bet neither of those two tossers houses look like this. Utterly embarrassingly low standards from these people. The ‘fix’ is to remove the outlets, PVA the openings, apply EasiFill and allow to dry fully, then sand and paint, then, repeat if necessary, and paint. If you have a PM then send the bill to them.

For future reference, these are a fantastic way of getting around bad edges. Several on the market, but these 'skim over' ones are loved by the plasterers I've fitted them with. As they can just go straight over. They even make downlighters ones

If I was pouring a slab in this weather I would have rolls of hessian stacking in an old bathtub of water, an hour after the final trowel up i would cover the slab in the damp hessian. the picture is just ring beams, but it was 28 degrees and the hessian cost pennies compared to the cost of the concrete the pump and the labour. cheap insurance really.